Monday, June 22, 2009

Paul Allen must be sick and tired of wading through email. First, the Microsoft co-founder incubated Gist, a Seattle startup that's trying to help people more effectively manage and consolidate personal messages flowing through Twitter, Facebook and email.

Now, the billionaire is launching Xiant, a Microsoft Outlook add-on designed to help people better organize email messages. In fact, Xiant -- a unit of Vulcan Technologies -- was a direct outgrowth of Allen's frustration trying to keep up with email.